Exxon Valdez

Originally posted on National Geographic 6/15/2013: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/15/gyre-expedition-day-5-bearing-witness-witnessing-bears-act-2-wednesday-june-12/ A mile down the beach and a mile out on the flat more-or-less, another mother trails three cubs from clam-hole to clam-hole. When she spots a big dark male headed her way from half a mile away, she moves off, in a hurry and a worry, frequently glancing […]

Originally posted on National Geographic 6/14/2013: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/14/gyre-expedition-day-5-bearing-witness-witnessing-bears-act-1-wednesday-june-12/ In the “morning” of the never-ending daylight, as the sun has swung round to the east and climbs the sky once more, we awaken in our windowless cabins. We’ve spent the short night at anchor in Hallo Bay. We head shoreward, trying to beat a dropping tide. We […]

Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/13/gyre-expedition-day-4-landing-in-hallo-bay-tuesday-june-11/ We spent several morning hours steaming west across Shelikof Strait to Hallo Bay in Katmai National Park, and landed the skiff on a rocky ledge at one end of a long bite of black beach backed spectacularly by the snow-peaked Alaska Range and Hallo Glacier. The highest peaks, […]